"Would it help if I sent you a wish-fulfillment dream?"
"It might. But I think I need to focus on my mission, now, and not waste imagination on anything else."
"Then I will send you a dream of deep sleep."
In his mind"s eye he saw a pale blue cloud floating toward him. The words DEEP SLEEP were embossed on its surface. It loomed large, smelling of gentle music, and encompa.s.sed him, and he sank into it with relief.
He woke much refreshed. His head was against Imbri"s gently heaving side. Dawn & Eve were up and picking blue berries, wearing blue skirts and slippers. In a moment they spied his flickering eyelids and came to join him.
"Have a berry, Forrest," Dawn said, plumping herself down crosslegged beside him.
"Yes, they are very good," Eve said, doing the same. Their firm legs showed well beyond the knees. Were they teasing him again?
He opened his mouth to say, "But I can pick my own berries."
But before the first word popped out, Eve leaned dangerously forward and popped a berry in. It was delicious. He chewed it, then opened his mouth to thank her-and she popped in another.
He gave up the unequal struggle, and ate the berries he was given. There was something to be said for being catered to by willing maidens.
But they had a day ahead of them. Forrest dug into his knapsack and brought out the canned blanket. "Don"t invoke this until after Imbri and I are out of range," he told them. "And don"t do anything too wild we don"t know the limit of the obscurity."
"Yes, Master," they said together, and laughed, their tightly bloused bosoms heaving.
"And get out of those nuisance clothes before something freaks me out."
They glanced down, startled. "oops, we forgot," Dawn said. Her pale blue blouse rippled and became a heavy blue plaid shirt.
"We just naturally dressed our usual way, when we woke," Eve said. Her blue-black skirt twisted and formed itself into baggy dark blue jeans.
"After just naturally sleeping nude."
"And dreaming of fun with a faun."
Then they stood, together. Dawn"s light blue skirt changed to pale blue jeans just a bare instant before it would have shown Too Much, and Eve"s dark blouse changed to a dark shirt just a transparent instant after it had shown More Than Enough.
They were definitely teasing him. Apparently they just couldn"t help themselves. He would simply have to try to ignore it. He wished himself success. Already he was wondering just how blue their panties might be.
Then he mounted Imbri, and she walked out onto the path. She didn"t hurry, because they weren"t trying to go anywhere, just to meet someone they could ask directions of. He glanced back, but didn"t notice anyone. Good; that meant that the girls had invoked the blanket of obscurity, and unless they did something foolish, like dancing naked and screaming, he wouldn"t notice them.
Soon they approached a woman who was walking along the path in the opposite direction. "h.e.l.lo," Forrest called, hoping that this was the right way to address a Pyramid native.
She looked sharply at him. "Do you want something from me, faun?"
He reminded himself that the folk here always looked for chances to get ahead by giving things away. "Yes, actually."
"Who are you and what do you want?"
This seemed surprisingly easy. "I am Forrest Faun, and I want to locate Princess Ida."
"We don"t have any princesses here."
"Maybe she"s not a princess here. She has a moon orbiting her head."
The woman shook her head. "Never heard of her. So I can"t help you. So I might as well hara.s.s you."
"Hara.s.s me?"
"I am Polly Morph, and I can change myself into what I can imagine.
Today I am irritable, so I shall become a dragon and gobble you and your stupid horse up, hoping you don"t taste too bad." Her face stretched out to become a dragon"s snout, and her body burst out of its clothes to become serpentine.
"But we haven"t done anything to you," Forrest protested.
"Precisely," the dragon said, snapping at them.
Imbri leaped into the air to avoid the teeth. She landed at a full gallop, getting out of there.
Unfortunately Forrest wasn"t used to riding, and wasn"t ready. When the mare shot forward, Forrest didn"t. He landed on his b.u.t.t in the path.
"Well, now," the dragon said. "You"re too small for a dragon, but just right for a griffin." She warped into a griffin.
Forrest scrambled to his feet and ran. But the griffin"s beak darted forward and caught his tail. His hoofs were moving, but he wasn"t getting anywhere.
Imbri turned and came charging back. "Naaaay!" she neighed. She leaped, her forehoofs aiming for the griffin"s body.
"Curses," the griffin muttered, in the process releasing Forrest. Then it twisted into a flying snake and wriggled out of the way.
Imbri landed and galloped on, unable to halt on such short notice. But she had given Forrest the reprieve he needed. He ran after her, hoping to get enough of a lead so that the monster couldn"t catch him.
But Polly morphed back into the griffin, and took flight. Forrest heard the wing-beats as she gained on him.
Then, suddenly, he collided with something remarkably soft. He landed in a tangle of limbs. He blinked, and saw what he hadn"t noticed before, though she was up against his chest: "Dawn!"
"Hey, I finally got your attention," she said, drawing her face from his ear and fluffing out her red hair.
"But the griffin-"
"Has lost track of you," Eve said.
He looked at his legs, and discovered what else he hadn"t noticed: they were tangled up with another girl"s legs. "Eve!"
She drew her face from his belly and fluffed out her tangled black tresses. "I really didn"t think we would get to this stage until after the mission," she confessed.
"What are you girls doing?"
"We are saving you from getting chomped," Dawn said, prying her flattened bosom from his chest.
"With the help of the blanket of obscurity," Eve said, unwrapping her cramped legs from his thighs.
"Because we really don"t want you to be hurt."
"Even if you would simply be launched back to Ptero."
"Because without your guidance, we would not be able to complete our mission."
"And we really do like your company."
By this time they had unstuck the rest of themselves from his body. Both girls were disheveled, but still pretty in a wild sort of way.
"Uh, thank you," Forrest said, realizing that he could indeed have been gobbled and banished from this region for whatever period was required by the framework of Pyramid. They had saved him from that by intervening in the only way they could, considering that he was not aware of their presence: by tackling him and bringing him into the coverage of the blanket.
Dawn gave him a direct green eyed glance, as bright as sunshine. "You are welcome."
Eve gave him a sidelong black eyed glance, as mysterious as night.
"It was our pleasure."
Forrest tried once more to get through to them. "You know, your teasing ways are very difficult for me to handle."
Dawn shook her head. "Some of what you take for teasing is merely our natural flair."
Eve frowned. "And in this particular instance, we were not teasing. We really did want to save you, and we really do like you."
Forrest was nonplused. "I mean, you really are two very lovely and provocative young women, and I-"
"We know," Dawn said seriously. "We know our nature, and what kind of reaction is to be expected from a male of any type."
"And we are ready," Eve said, just as seriously, "to make absolutely plain our readiness to accommodate that reaction, in due course."
Every time he tried to reason with them, it just got worse! "But I told you, this mission-"
"We understand," Dawn began.
"But we are falling in love with you," Eve concluded.
Then tears dropped from all four of their eyes.
Forrest"s jaw dropped. "But you were just flirting, and I knew that. It wasn"t serious. You are princesses, and I"m just a faun."
"We are girls who have never been certain whether any given man"s interest in us was because of our royalty," Dawn said.
"Or because of our physical appeal," Eve continued.
"Or our Sorceress caliber magic."
"Or our novelty as morning and evening twins."
"And we cared for none of these kinds of interest, in themselves."
"We wanted to be valued for ourselves."
"But I do know of your royalty, and appreciate your beauty, and your magic, and your novelty," Forrest protested. "I am fascinated by all of them. So I am no better than any of those you have encountered. And I am just a faun of no particular authority or ability. So-"
"So you have no ambition with respect to us," Dawn said.
"Just a healthy desire to celebrate with us in your quaint fashion," Eve said.
"And accomplish your mission."
"And go your way."
"Yes. I can"t remain in your world. I must return to my tree. And since I know that true human beings don"t believe in dalliance for its own sake, I am trying to avoid it."
"Which is our point," Dawn said. "You know us, and appreciate all our points, yet have no ulterior motive."
"You are the first male outside our family," Eve said, "whom we can truly trust. Therefore we love you."
"But trust is only one element of a meaningful relationship," he protested. "And it is a property of fauns to make the females they touch want to celebrate. So your emotions may not be genuine, or at least not natural."
"But we are young and fickle, and our love will not endure."
"So we hope to indulge it with you during this window of opportunity."
"And then we will go our separate ways," Dawn said.
"And remember each other with a certain wistful fondness," Eve said.
"With delight in the memory of the experience."
"Which was our very first of this type."
"And no regrets."
"And no regrets."
Forrest was overwhelmed. Maybe they were influenced by his faunish effect on females, but they had understanding too. "This-this is not an offer I can decline. But while we are on the mission-"
"It would be an abuse of the trust placed in all of us to play certain fauny games," Dawn said.
"And such faun & games might interfere with our pursuit of the mission," Eve agreed.
"So for now we will pretend that this dialogue has not yet occurred."
"But we will never doubt that it will occur in due course."
"Uh, yes," Forrest agreed. He was deeply touched, but knew that this was no time to be distracted from the mission. "Where"s Imbri?"
They looked out at the rest of the region. Polly Morph, in whatever form, was gone. Imbri was walking along the path, looking around as if seeking something she had lost.